Kane County Reporter

Members of the District 300 community made some bittersweet goodbyes in an extended celebration of board members Joe Stevens and Leslie LaMarca at their April 25 board of education meeting.  

They were headed up by D300 Foundation President Mike Williamson, who was allowed to break policy slightly and speak at the end of the meeting during the board member comment time instead of public comment due to the topic and length of his speech, and former board president and member of 24 years, Ann Miller. Both of these very distinguished servants of the school district gushed about the tenures of Stevens and LaMarca, who had over two decades of service to the board between them.

"It's become one of our responsibilities to make sure that we send off our board members appropriately after doing the impressive service that they've done and let's be honest, Joe Stevens and Leslie LaMarca have sat during what has got to have been the strangest, most difficult, most powerful, most traumatizing and in several ways, most interesting period to be on the Board of Education in a long time," Williamson said during the meeting.

Miller gave brief testimonies of her time spent working with the two, thanking LaMarca for her creation and curation of the food pantry available to students, and thanking Stevens for the wisdom and people skills he taught her over the years, all the way back to when he started on the board 17 years ago.

Williamson also praised the efforts of the departing board members, saying, “What a powerful thing it is to see someone who truly knows how to lead through support” pointing to the way LaMarca has supported students and families through the food pantry because she saw how students weren’t able to engage and learn when they didn’t have some of those basic food and hygiene needs met.

Among comments, Williamson shared several stories from the long time he spent with Stevens, some embarrassing stories about blankets in cold board rooms, and how they would fight over one policy and agree on the next, but mostly honoring Stevens for his dedication to public service.

Williamson and Miller were not the only two to speak on behalf of Stevens and LaMarca. All of the remaining board members shared stories and well wishes for the departing board members. While the two said they were very grateful and promised to come back and talk with their colleagues, new board members Randi Gauthier and Olutola Makinde will take their places with terms that expire in 2027. 

David Scarpino is set to move forward as the board president.